This is the second in a series of posts about Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1390s). PLOT/THEME/RHETORIC Plot: The knight tells a classic chivalric romance about the battle two cousins (Arcite and Palomon) have for the same woman: the Duke’s sister-in-law Emily. Because the two cousins were political exiles, neither can fulfill their desire ofContinue reading “Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale”
Author Archives: Jonathan Sircy
Covenantal Shakespeare
Today, I read Shakespeare’s King Lear (1606). The play is all about succession and the relationships between fathers and their children. It made me think that I should focus my interpretive efforts on what I’ll call Covenantal Shakespeare, a survey of Shakespeare’s great tragedies through the themes of the covenant. The syllabus would look thisContinue reading “Covenantal Shakespeare”
Pride and Prejudice Volume 2
This is the second in a series of posts on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. PLOT/THEME/RHETORIC Plot: Volume 1 ended with Elizabeth declining a proposal and Jane’s hopes for one dissolving. Volume 2 has at its center Elizabeth declining another proposal, this one from Mr. Darcy, while discovering why Jane’s proposal never happened. Theme: WhileContinue reading “Pride and Prejudice Volume 2”
Anatomy of Criticism: Polemical Introduction
Northrop Frye wrote Anatomy of Criticism in 1957 as a prolegomena. He wanted to write about Spenser’s Faerie Queene but felt himself having to explain position after position until he discovered he was 10,000 feet in the air taking a broader look at the systematic study of literature. The books introduction is the prolegomena toContinue reading “Anatomy of Criticism: Polemical Introduction”
No Neutrality: Critical Terms for Literary Study
This is the first of a series of weekly posts on the book Critical Terms for Literary Study. The Preface and Introduction to Critical Terms for Literary Study make one thing clear. You can’t be neutral in literary study. I agree. The Preface and Introduction also reject the idea that “divine fiat” has anything toContinue reading “No Neutrality: Critical Terms for Literary Study”
Biblical Presuppositions: The Imagination
A biblical view of literature begins with a proper view of God and man. I’ve been mulling over the ramifications of the doctrine of Creation for literary study, but I will sketch that out next week. While reviewing John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, I was struck by the following passages.
The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue
This is the first of a series of posts on Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (ca. 1390s). PLOT/THEME/STYLE Plot: the opening of this frame narrative is pretty simple. Thirty-one pilgrims meet in an inn on their way to Canterbury, the destination of a religious pilgrimage to visit St. Thomas A Becket’s grave. The narrator, himselfContinue reading “The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue”
Macbeth
This post is about Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. PLOT/THEME/STYLE Macbeth comes billed as a tragedy, and it lives up to its billing. Pulled from historical chronicles, the play’s protagonist is a medieval Scottish nobleman who wants to become king. After witches prophesy that he will be king, Macbeth makes their prediction come true by killing theContinue reading “Macbeth”
Pride and Prejudice, Vol. 1
This is the first of three posts about Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice (1813). Method: I’m going to start with the presupposition of the Trinity–the three persons in one of the godhead-as the basis for my evaluation of the book. If you read intro handbooks on lit, the interpretive process can seem rather arbitrary.Continue reading “Pride and Prejudice, Vol. 1”
This Site: An Introduction
Over the next three years, I hope to write four literature courses for a Christian homeschool curriculum. I want this curriculum to be self-consciously Christian, built up on clear Biblical presuppositions. I can’t write this curriculum yet. This blog will record my experiments in Christian criticism as I prepare for this work. The site’s nameContinue reading “This Site: An Introduction”
Experiments in Criticism 